Wartime mascot Major Major didn’t come home
Will Harvie traces the life of a dog who become synonymous with New Zealand forces in Africa during World War II.
In September 1942, Major was promoted to major and so became Major Major.
The Australian bull terrier dog had outlasted two ‘‘masters’’ by this time and was under the care of Major Tony Everist of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Egypt.
He eventually became one of New Zealand’s most famous military mascots and joined a lineage of soldierly pets that stretches to antiquity – Alexander the Great favoured a dog named Peritas and reportedly named a city after it. Sadly, the city’s location is now lost.
Experts in this field distinguish military mascots from working animals – bullocks, for example.
Mascots were kept for ‘‘ceremonial purposes, as emblems of particular units or simply for companionship’’, according to the New Zealand History website.
Dogs were the most common but cats, donkeys, monkeys, lizards, pigs, goats and birds were also adopted. Some animals went to war with their owners, others were picked up along the way.
Caesar was a companion and a working dog. The New Zealand dog helped rescue wounded troops during the Battle of the Somme in 1916, especially by locating wounded soldiers in no-man’s land at night. He was killed in action.
Major was born in Australia in the late 1930s and given as a pup to Errol Williams, a New Zealand cadet at the Royal Military College near Canberra, according to the NZ History website, an official government resource.
War was declared in 1939, Williams was promoted to captain and Major was registered as No 1 New Zealand Dog, although of no rank at this point. They landed in Egypt in February 1940.
Williams and Major trained at Maadi Camp outside Cairo and elsewhere until June 1941.
‘‘He made the acquaintance of many local dogs and did not escape unscathed,’’ reports the website, meaning Major was fighting other dogs.
His left ear was damaged and flopped endearingly for the rest of his life.
In August 1941, Major was promoted to 2nd lieutenant and joined Wellington West Coast Company of 19 Battalion, which Williams then commanded.
In August 1941 the dog was in the Canal Zone and had a ‘‘liaison’’ with a naval pekingese from a British ship, reports the website. By November 1941, Major was on the front in Libya and saw several days of fighting. Captain Williams was killed on the 28th and ‘‘Major took the death hard and refused to be comforted’’. Captain Bill Aitken took over Major’s care and the dog was promoted to lieutenant and then captain. The German advance into Egypt in June 1942 saw the New Zealand Division hurriedly thrown into the line at El Alamein, Major the dog among them.
In July, Captain Major was wounded in the leg by shrapnel. Medics saw to his care and he was invalided back to Cairo.
Meanwhile, Captain Aitken was taken prisoner and the dog was attached to Everist. Promotion for the dog followed.
In February 1943, 19 Regiment was inspected by LieutenantGeneral Bernard Freyberg, commander of the New Zealand Division. Major wore a jacket with unit colours and emblem. The general noted Major’s presence and said, ‘‘Ah, the old dog. You’ve been on every parade yet’’, reports the website.
The regiment sailed for Italy in late 1943 and the dog was under the care of Lieutenant Steve Whitton.
There’s no record of Major Major crossing paths with an American airman named Joseph Heller, who was also serving on the Italian front, though based in Corsica, about this time. Years later, Heller wrote the classic novel Catch-22 and included a minor character named Major Major Major Major. According to the book, the ineffectual officer was named Major Major Major by his father as a joke and his rank was accidentally major.
Literary fame attached to a completely different military mascot from World War I. In 1914, Lieutenant Harry Colebourn purchased an orphaned black bear cub from a hunter in northern Ontario, Canada.
Colebourn named the cub Winnie, after the Canadian city of Winnipeg, and took the animal to England. ‘‘The cub slept under his cot and followed him around like a puppy. When not climbing tent poles or playing with her owner, the gentle bear posed for photographs with soldiers and became the regiment’s mascot,’’ according to the History website.
Colebourn was ordered to the Western Front and left Winnie at London Zoo. The bear became a favourite of AA Milne and his son Christopher Robin, and his name is today immortalised as Winnie-thePooh.
To some, Winnie is more than a beloved children’s character, he is a Taoist philosopher.
No such weight is burdened on Major Major and his floppy ear.
He died on December 17, 1944, probably from pneumonia. He was buried with full military honours at Rimini, about 110km east of Florence. His grave was well marked at the time but has been lost.
Major Major’s exploits became the basis of the book, The FourLegged Major, by Graham Spencer. It is out of print but copies change hands on Trade Me.